Monday, October 24, 2016

How To Pick A Team To Root For In The World Series

So I have been paying a little bit of attention to baseball. It's a lot easier now (my hiatus et al.) that there are only two teams playing in games that matter.

When the postseason began the team I was supporting were the Blue Jays, because club based in a foreign country, but they didn't make it.

The 2016 World Series is going to be between the Cleveland Native Americans and the Chicago Cubs. Two teams who have suffered a long drought of World Series Championships and (from the point of view of most neutral observers) the title could go to either of them and we'd all be pretty satisfied.

If you're like me (a neutral observer) you're probably searching for a team to root for in this World Series.

Everybody has their own algorithm and methods to rooting for teams. Almost none of it is based on logic. Here is mine.

Have I Seen Anybody In Person?

I've never seen either the Cleveland Indians or Chicago Cubs in person before. Ticket prices at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field are so inflated that no team is ever worth going out of your way to see.

On an individual level, have I seen these players at some games I've been to before?

Honestly with the big leaguers who were once on teams like the Rays it's hard to tell. I may have seen Zobrist as a Ray once before.

If we expand to beyond the 25-man to the 40-man the Cleveland Indians have Kyle Crockett, who I saw in my first ever minor league baseball game back in 2013. Okay well I didn't actually see him pitch but he was there in the stadium with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.

Meanwhile the Cubs 40-man has Andury Acevedo, who I met in person back in 2013 when he was playing for the Staten Island Yankees. Oof, this is a tough choice.

Screw it, this criteria stinks.

Edge: Nobody

TTMs?

Who have I gotten returns from from the Tribe (25-man)?

Kluber, Miller, Shaw, Tomlin, Merritt, Napoli, Chisenhall and Naquin.

If we include the 40-man guys I also got returns from Salazar, Crockett and Garner.

From the Cubs (25-man).

Edwards, Grimm, Zastryzny, Zobrist and Soler.

If we include the 40-man guys I also got returns from Johnson and La Stella. And an IP from Andury Acevedo.

Oof, this is just as tough. On the one hand the Tribe returns came from key guys who've all played significant roles in the club's rise to the World Series this year. On other other hand the Cubs have a Staten Island Yankee...

You know what, Andury wasn't that special. I give the score to the Tribe who responded even after their big league careers started.

Edge: Cleveland

Ties To My Favorite Team/Organization

Here's probably a criteria a lot of people have about picking teams to root for after yours has been eliminated. See if the team remaining has some sort of significant connection with your favorite team.

Let's see what Cleveland has.

Andrew Miller. Kick ass closer/reliever who get the Yankees a ton of prospect capital this past summer. Sucks that he's gone but it's totally cool that he has a chance to get a ring now. He's so good that even a guy like me who doesn't care for non-Yankees farmhands actually liked him.

Zach McAllister. P-Town Tom should be very excited. This World Series features his beloved Cubbies going against the Tribe and one of his local hometown heroes, Zach McAllister. In addition, McAllister was a former Yankees farmhand who has carved out a decent career with the Tribe.

Abraham Almonte (40-man). Former Yankees farmhand who spent seven years in the Yankees farm system before being shipped off to Seattle in the Shawn Kelley trade. Almonte was later traded to the Padres who then traded him to the Tribe.

I'll be honest, those are some impressive ex-Yanks the Tribe have on their 40-man roster. Can the Cubs compete?

Aroldis Chapman. Domestic abuse suspect who got the Yankees a ton of prospect capital this past summer. I really don't want him back in pinstripes even though he's really good as a player.

Andury Acevedo (40-man). As mentioned previously, Acevedo was a former Staten Island Yankee who I actually saw. By all accounts he should make me root for the Cubs. But he's not playing in the World Series and he wasn't even my favorite SIY in 2013 so he's really not.

And that's it. *fart noise*

Edge goes to the Tribe. No contest.

Edge: Cleveland

Friends I Want To See Happy

This is what I'm basically going to refer as the P-Town Tom vs Anco-San series. You see, P-Town Tom is one of the best collecting buds I have who's basically the only Cubs fan I ever really trade with. We've had some wonderful trades throughout the years and I genuinely want for him to witness a Cubs World Series victory in his lifetime. And it's not just like PTT has made great contributions to just my collection, but anyone who has ever traded with him can attest to just how thoughtful the guy's packages are. I don't necessarily know if I want the Cubs to win to reverse the curse or whatever, but if nothing else, I want them to win for Tom! I don't want him to wait 'til next year anymore. BTW, PTT, I got your package the other day. Thanks a ton :)!

That said, one of my other good trading buddies Anco-san (from Japan) is a huge Tribe fan. The guy has been on a year long card hiatus but he still loves and supports the Tribe (FYI Anco-san became a fan of the team after watching Major League). I've met both him and his wife in person. And good gosh is it hard to root against him too lol.

If it were just between these guys I'd probably lean towards the Cubs but there are a few more people to acknowledge here.

Obviously there are the tons of Cubbies collectors on the rest of this corner of the blogosphere. Even though I don't trade with them I do read their blogs (if I can) and try to interact with them. They're a cool bunch. Like Wrigley Wax, Wrigley Roster Jenga, Can't Have Too Many Cards and a few others I'm forgetting at the moment.

But what about the people whose lives will be radically altered (for the worst) of one of the teams wins. Let's consider White Sox fans like 2x3 Heroes. This must be a miserable series for them because it's between a rival AL Central team and the crosstown rival team. A matchup that must only feel slightly less depressing than the two candidates in the upcoming presidential election. The species we call White Sox fans have lived for nearly over a century in peace and they were able to die peacefully knowing they never saw the Cubs win a World Series (though to be fair most of them never saw the White Sox win jack either :P). Could they handle the Cubs winning it all for once? Do we really want to make any currently living White Sox fans know that they're witnessing the Cubs winning?

Honestly, here's where the edge goes to the Cubs. Anco-san, we're still buds, but PTT got me drink coasters with Luis Torrens and Luis Severino cards embedded in them. On top of T206es, Wampas, and God knows how many Torrens cards that became important to my PC.

Edge: Cubs (Win for Tom!)

Final Verdict

Upon reviewing the data I've decided that I will root for, chaos and anarchy!

Also I'm not going to pick. The Cubs have no players I want to see succeed, not a one (actually they have one guy I want to see fail). They have fans I'm cool with that I want to see happy though. As for the Tribe they have a lot of great players I want to root for and stronger Yankees ties. But ultimately, picking one team proved to just jinx that team and sink its hopes. So I'm not rooting for anything but hilaribad defense, utter chaos by the baseball Gods (as if this matchup wasn't chaotic enough), a Charlie Sheen first pitch and all of Chicago apologizing to Steve Bartman.

Sidenote, I'm more interested in the Japan series to be perfectly honest. Go Carp! Win it for Big Hirok!

4 comments:

I would love to see all the Cubs bloggers get to celebrate a World Series. They are a good group of dudes.

Now for my own selfish reasons I'm much like you. I demand chaos! The Cubs have the bigger collection of guys I don't really like (Lackey, Lester, Montero and Chapman), so if they do win I hope it is due to the play of the guys I actually enjoy (Zobrist, Rizzo and Bryant).

I don't dislike any of the Cleveland players so they have that going for them.

So.......how about 7 games and Aroldis Chapman blows it in the 9th by giving up three consecutive walks and a grandslam to Lindor.

For the Cubs they can win on a Zobrist homerun by means of a missed fan interference call.